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Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

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Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#341

Post by lsc »

Yup. I ditched my car because of uber/lyft.

the problem, from a business perspective, is that I live in silicon valley, and still have the expensive parts of owning a car; there's still the parking that came with my residence, and my employer is still paying for parking at work. (I dunno about you, but my desk is rather smaller than a car parking spot.)

If Uber/Lyft were to raise their prices to profit-making levels, all I would have to do is buy the car, which is, as far as I can tell, not the most expensive part of the infrastructure required to support owning a car, at least not in my area.

If uber/lyft want to make this sticky enough that they can raise their rates, they need to hurry to lobby the cities to build housing without parking, or otherwise allow me to opt-out of buying car infrastructure, otherwise... well, yeah, I'm going to get driven when it's subsidized (I take uber and lyft, whatever is cheapest) but once that subsidy goes away? if it becomes as expensive as I think it will, I'm just going to buy a car again.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#342

Post by NKZZ »

usaphp wrote: post #335
megy wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do all of that on a bike (well, not the kid stuff). It is not like it is impossible to live without a car.

In the winter too? I thought we were not talking about what's possible and what's not, I thought op was talking about equal convenience for him of owning a car vs using uber/lyft.

> In the winter too?

(I'm not OP) Why not? I ride even during storms, much less shying away from what, some cold winds in winter? By the time you reach your destination if you're wearing the right clothing you not only won't feel cold, you might even feel too hot. If I ride for longer than 10 minutes I need to open my jacket or put it in my backpack to let some air in to prevent my body from sweating.

Of all the seasons I'd name summer as being worse to ride than winter because there is no getting away from the fact that you'll be drenched in sweat during summer. Thankfully I don't need to go to work on a bicycle because we have great public transportation here in France, so I mostly use it for other things and just for the sake of it (I like cycling). Cycling to work would not be convenient during warm seasons, to say the least. Winter is the best, just get a jacket that protects you from the wind, some gloves and decent shoes.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#343

Post by lhorie »

NKZZ wrote: post #337
lhorie wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifestyle plays a part in where and how you live though. Kids may not require a car in downtown Toronto, but all the nice kid-oriented programs are uptown, where you do need a car to get around. Similarly, living in SF with two kids, I don't technically _need_ a car since MUNI coverage is decent, but we have a fast-paced lifestyle: it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea…

> it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea, trying out a new local bakery or restaurant, The idea of going to physical stores to browse articles has become mind numbing to me. 'Regularly going to costco, ikea' when I can just order on amazon, get ikea to deliver to my home, get non-perishable/fresh food online from supermarkets that do home deliveries, have 5 bakeries tha…

> Getting things delivered to your home is far less exhausting

Fair. But on the other hand, having ice cream and meatballs at Ikea is a thing. You also need to account for cost of delivery and for returning things. And that's just ikea-related things we do.

> 5 bakeries that I can get to in 5 minutes of bicycling and more restaurants than I could care for

That describes downtown of any half decent metropolitan city anywhere, not just europe. I already mentioned the issue with that though: you can't do "5 minutes of bycicling" when you have 2 toddlers. Nor are your family going to have easy access to the multitude of other things I didn't mention: fishing, strawberry picking, corn mazes, safari, skiing, lift lock tour, trips of various lengths are just _some_ of the many many things we did last year. Driving three towns over to ride in a carousel one afternoon "because my wife heard it was a nice one" is the sort of thing we've done just for the heck of it.

Could I do the instagramming-yet-another-fusion-sushi-roll metrosexual lifestyle? Sure. But I think having a car opens a wider breadth of experiences.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#344

Post by clairity »

hueving wrote: post #303
clairity wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes. note that the article doesn't extrapolate anything to the US population, that's something that @awwstn added in. lyft, in the article, says 250K people on its platform have dropped car ownership according to its survey. they extrapolate that total number from a survey of a sample of it riders and drivers in 52 cities.

Ok, then the error is much less egregious but there is still a sampling error I can see (at least based on my own usage pattern of Lyft). As a user of Lyft who owns a car the odds of me being sampled by this survey were significantly lower than the people that depend on Lyft daily. It's the same problem with surveying people in an airport to determine how often flyers fly. Heavy users are more likely to be oversample…

that's definitely a possible sampling error but lyft doesn't seem to tell you enough to know if they made that error. for example, if they only solicited survey takers after a ride, your assertion would be true.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#345

Post by krinchan »

It'd be interesting to see the number of households that dropped from two cars to one because they didn't really need the second car often enough. It's just more cost effective for us to use Lyft as a second car when needed, since it's maybe for 6 trips a month.

However, before Uber/Lyft, having two cars was worth it because public transit where we live is trash if it isn't rail station to rail station. The buses run on 45 to 60 minute intervals and are always late.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#346

Post by NKZZ »

lhorie wrote: post #343
NKZZ wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea, trying out a new local bakery or restaurant, The idea of going to physical stores to browse articles has become mind numbing to me. 'Regularly going to costco, ikea' when I can just order on amazon, get ikea to deliver to my home, get non-perishable/fresh food online from supermarkets that do home deliveries, have 5 bakeries tha…

> Getting things delivered to your home is far less exhausting Fair. But on the other hand, having ice cream and meatballs at Ikea is a thing. You also need to account for cost of delivery and for returning things. And that's just ikea-related things we do. > 5 bakeries that I can get to in 5 minutes of bicycling and more restaurants than I could care for That describes downtown of any half decent metropolitan city a…

> you can't do "5 minutes of bycicling" when you have 2 toddlers

With two, that would be complicated. It's really not that uncommon to see parents ride with one though, with that sort of equipment : https://www.twowheelingtots.com/childbabybikeseatbuyingguide...

> Nor are your family going to have easy access to the multitude of other things I didn't mention: fishing, strawberry picking, corn mazes, safari, skiing, trips of various lengths, lift lock tour are just _some_ of the many many things we did last year.

That really depends on location. Living in a southern French town that has public transportation (bus and tramway) that leads to nice beach towns in 20 to 30 min, fishing is not an activity we lack. Leaving the city to get to the bordering countryside for activities like picking fruits, nuts and wild vegetables also takes about 30 min. When I was a kid I didn't need for my father to be home and drive me around if I wanted to go out and have fun eating wild nuts and berries.

France has a powerful train network and no matter where you live here, you're always close to a ski station, kinda.

> Drive three towns over one afternoon to ride in a carousel "because my wife heard it was a nice one" is the sort of thing we've done for the heck of it.

And the sort of attitude your grand-children will rightly judge you for considering the horrible impact your vacuous consumerism you're calling 'breadth' of experiences is having on this world. I would have abstained from this remark were it not for this latter quip :

> Could I do the instagramming-yet-another-crepe metrosexual lifestyle?

So, if we're not proudly rolling coal we are instagramming metrosexuals, probably wearing fedoras and tipping it at m'lady? have you gone and looked at a mirror yet?

This thread in general was one of the most revealing thing I've ever read about Americans and their view of the world. Particularly the guy who wouldn't even walk one kilometer :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16162504

And the other one to comment on wutaboutwinter.

Maybe it's time we hit the reset button on civilization.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#347

Post by indubitable »

hueving wrote: post #97
indubitable wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber, and I imagine Lyft, are banking on automation. So what is sustainability? Self driving vehicles, at scale, could profitably provide service for a lower cost per mile than a person who owns their own vehicle. And that industry is going to have incredibly rapid growth likely culminating in a monopoly that could yield the largest company in existence. We drive in the ballpark of ~300billion miles per month [1]. Co…

Sustainability is having a business that doesn't depend on a rapid rollout of a technology that doesn't work in weather that most people won't trust for years and that isn't even legal yet.

- By the time the technology is at the 99.999% level, the game will already be over.

- Things are legal by default. If self driving vehicles are not explicitly made illegal by a state, they are legal.

- Peoples' trust changes rapidly. I think as a culture we've become much more scared of technology and change, but the change from horses to internal combustion engines and brakes was many magnitudes 'scarier' than having AI manage navigation.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#348

Post by praneshp »

lhorie wrote: post #343
NKZZ wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea, trying out a new local bakery or restaurant, The idea of going to physical stores to browse articles has become mind numbing to me. 'Regularly going to costco, ikea' when I can just order on amazon, get ikea to deliver to my home, get non-perishable/fresh food online from supermarkets that do home deliveries, have 5 bakeries tha…

> Getting things delivered to your home is far less exhausting Fair. But on the other hand, having ice cream and meatballs at Ikea is a thing. You also need to account for cost of delivery and for returning things. And that's just ikea-related things we do. > 5 bakeries that I can get to in 5 minutes of bicycling and more restaurants than I could care for That describes downtown of any half decent metropolitan city a…

> Could I do the instagramming-yet-another-fusion-sushi-roll metrosexual lifestyle? Sure. But I think having a car opens a wider breadth of experiences.

Looks like your car hasn't given you any breadth in experiences.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#349

Post by praneshp »

nemothekid wrote: post #115
unethical_ban wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised - most bars I know either don't card because they're upscale enough to not worry about minors, or they don't accept any expired ID (or sometimes even other states). In Texas, a state ID can be issued that is identical to a DL but with a different title. Costs something like $10-20. Or get your passport, but that's $160 with the book + card.

I've been using my Passport (card) and that was convenient, however I lost my wallet recently - I've been using my Passport, but if I were to lose that, then I'd be a bit more worried. As far as carding goes, it depends on the establishment. Most bars I go to, don't card, but when they do it's a situation that can mess up your night.

You can also get a state ID; that way you can uphold your no license principle as well as get into bars.

But if I went all the way to the DMV for a state ID and there was no appointment required for a drive test I'd just get a license.

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